GTWCE: WRT / Weerts On Pole At Magny-Cours

Charles Weerts, at the wheel of the # 32 Team WRT Audi R8 LMS he shares with Dries Vanthoor, took overall pole position for the opening round of the 2021 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Sprint Cup, lapping the 4.412 kms Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in 1:36.133. Joining the #32 entry on the front row of the grid will be the #163 Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 in which Ricardo Feller set a 1:36.328 on his seventh lap.

Completing the overall top three, and quickest of the Silver Cup category, for Saturday May 8’s 60-minute race, was the sister Emil Frey Racing entry, in which Arthur Rougier put in a 1:36.270.

Second quickest in the Silver Cup class was the #33 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari F488 driven by Patrick Kujala which lapped in 1:36.335.

Pole position in the Pro-Am class was taken by Alexander West, at the wheel of the #188 Garage 59 Aston Martin AMR Vantage GT3.

The 20-minute qualifying session began in warm, early evening temperatures with the #32 Audi’s practice time of 1:35.849 the baseline for the session. Luca Stolz set the first competitive time with a 1:36.842 in the #6 TokSport Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Charles Weerts in the #32 Audi set a 1:36.567 on his fourth lap, still nearly a second behind Vanthoor’s time set earlier in the weekend. Weerts went quicker still with a 1:36.359 and it looked as if the rest of the grid was struggling to keep pace with the young Belgian pilot.

Ricardo Feller lapped in 1:36.238 in the #163 Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 but Weerts still had more to give and took pole position with a 1:36.133 on his eighth tour.

Charles Weerts was delighted to have taken pole for the first race of the 2021 Sprint Cup.

“Yes, I’m so happy and it’s quite funny because before weekend I said my one goal was to make pole and then let’s see what the race will bring. It’s been quite some time since I made pole position and I’m so happy to finally make it here in Magny-Cours!”

The session ran without incident and the grid will next assemble for Race One which gets underway at 22:25 local time on Saturday May 8.